Primary Research — Personal Experiences
During our life we all encounter situations that bring feelings of empathy and appreciation for what we ourselves have. This could happen walking through a busy city, or poor area and observing the countless people that have an insufficient source of shelter or food.
Many people tend to think of poverty as more of an international issue than an issue so prevalent in the United States. However due to COVID-19 and several other social and economic factors, local poverty in smaller urban areas has skyrocketed, even here in Buffalo, New York.
Two weeks ago I was walking into my job at the West Seneca branch of Planet Fitness and noticed a homeless man sleeping right in front of our front doors, he had been there for a number of weeks prior to this day but for some reason I decided that day was the one to spark conversation.
This conversation has forever changed the way I view society and inequality.
I began by asking the man where he was from, how old he was and how long he has been in the area. He informed me that his name was Ben, and he was 37 years old and he was initially from Minnesota. He started his life being born into an abusive situation where both parents suffered from drug and alcohol addictions. He lived in a very small one-bedroom apartment with his parents until he was 10- years old until his father couldn’t afford rent.
Where to go?
At this point Ben had to live on his own at just the age of 10 because his parents abandoned him 3 weeks into all being homeless together. His parents had little to no involvement in his daily life from this point on and this led to Ben never even going to one singular day of elementary school, middle school, or high school.
Once Ben reached the age of 21 he was working as a painter while he began experimenting with drugs such as pain pills and cocaine. He then began a dark road that would last over 15 years. Ben was living with his cousins until they kicked him out due to his drug abuse issue. From that point on he was living on the road bouncing from city to city, hoping to find opportunity. Ben had only been in Buffalo for about a year but recently started hanging around the plaza that I work at.
Lack of Oppertunity
Ben started to open to me and share his views on society. His views are without a doubt understandable. They exploit the injustices of child service programs, and educational programs available to children without true parents. Bens exact quote.
“For a country that promotes opportunity for all, land of the free, home of the brave, I was never handed one singular ounce of help and the sad thing is that there’s millions of people just like me”
This experience with Ben has forever made me appreciative of my life yet at the same time angry for the millions of forgotten people just like Ben. Policy makers need to identify ways to allocate educational resources to those in need because in many cases, the problem can be solved before it is started. Imagine how different Ben’s life could have been if he simply was forced to go to school by a team of child care workers.
